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Karunanidhi backs Eelam, but won’t make demand

Observers in Chennai rate this move as a major shift in the policy of Karunanidhi who has always claimed that Tamil Eelam was his “unfulfilled dream”.

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The Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO) meeting to be held in Chennai on August 12 will not adopt any resolution seeking creation of a separate Eelam (Tamil homeland for Lankan Tamils). This was announced here on Monday by DMK chief M Karunanidhi, who is the brain behind the TESO meeting.

Observers in Chennai rate this move as a major shift in the policy of Karunanidhi who has always claimed that Tamil Eelam was his “unfulfilled dream”.

Karunanidhi’s announcement came 24 hours after union home minister P Chidambaram met him at his residence here. Though Karunanidhi had declared that the TESO meeting would be held at Villupuram on August 5, he announced its postponement immediately after the visit of National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon to Colombo in the last week of June. There were reports that Sri Lankan leaders had expressed reservation about the proposed TESO meeting to the NSA.

Interestingly, Karunanidhi had asserted that TESO was being revived with the sole intention of achieving the Tamil Eelam. “Tamil Eelam within my lifetime is my aim,” he has declared many times in the last couple of months.

“Tamil Eelam is my unfulfilled dream. But we will not adopt any resolution seeking the creation of a separate Eelam during the Chennai meeting,” Karunanidhi told reporters during a brief interaction.

When he was asked whether the change in tune with regard to the Eelam was the result of any pressure from the Centre, the DMK chief shot back: “Don’t imagine things. There is no pressure from anybody.”

Karunanidhi explained that he was worried about mitigating the hardships faced by the Tamils at the end of the armed struggle. “We are more bothered about improving the livelihood of the Tamils in Northern Sri Lanka. I’ll take into consideration the views expressed by the delegates who are participating in the August 12 meeting,” he said.

Intelligence sources told DNA that Karunanidhi had been asked by the Union Government not to precipitate matters by raising demands like separate Tamil Eelam.

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